Thoughts, ideas, photos, and stories.

Who Rang the Dinner Bell?

Caviar at most waterfront restaurants! Fine dining at reasonable prices. Formal dress required. White gowns or dark suits. Seating for thousands available. Quantities free while they last. No need to clean up after yourself. The sea will take care of that.

Already seated are many white-gowned guests. Dining out in the watery waiting room are the bigger dark suits. Circles will show you where to look for these stellar guests. Actually, these sea lions are spelled “Steller’s sea lions” but they are the stars of the herring fishery so I thought “stellar” was appropriate. A few California sea lions are joining the lunch crowd. The Americans know when there is a bargain to be had in Canada.

What could be better than dining by the seaside? The most expensive restaurants have a view of the water, but right ON the water…WOW!!!

And here is the menu. All you can eat, caviar. Herring roe has collected on the gravel of the beach, sticking onto all kinds of seaweed, kelp being the preferred vegetable of the day. Excellent pairings of vegetables and seafood appetizers.

For a close-up, see the delicious, clean herring eggs, lying in clusters, hoping to attach to the brown kelp leaves for security.

This group of diners has pigged out on the appetizer and doesn’t even have room for the entree or dessert. See their bulging crops? Some of them look downright uncomfortable. Not much flying going on here. Are they even able to get off the ground anymore?

A few have gone for aquasizes out on the water. Some are taking a time out to do their hair and check their makeup. Yet others are standing around exchanging the latest gossip tidbits.

And out on the penthouse restaurant, the dark suits come up for a breather between appetizers and the fish entree. A nice nap while lying on his back is perfect on this sunny day.

My visit to the beach was also perfect today. The stellar Steller’s barked goodbye to me as I got back in my car to go home. Time to make an appetizer for myself. Maybe it won’t be caviar. It’s going to be hard to top that.

I think the eggs that survive are the ones in the water (as long as the sea lions don’t get them). In the shallow waters below the tide line, they stick on to the kelp and probably other seaweed, and they’re relatively safe there. On the beach, once they’re washed up, they can dry out, or get picked up by seagulls, eagles, and a variety of shorebirds. Some survive and get washed back out when the tide comes in, but they’re safer below the low tide mark. The ones on the beach are usually the casualties. There are way more in the water than on the beach.

Wonderful photos, and so unusual. I’m fond of sea lions, but haven’t seen any in the wild for years. And all of that roe at the tideline — that’s a sight you’ll never see around here. Very enjoyable series.

It’s an annual event here. There are other parts of the beach where the herring roe is about a foot deep if the conditions are right to wash them up on shore. The eagles spend a lot of time down there too, filling their boots.

Yes, there is a market for herring roe in Japan. It used to be a lot stronger than it is now but Asian diets are becoming more westernized and young Asians tend to go more for Big Macs now. In the 1970s and 80s many herring fishermen became millionaires from this fishery. That is not the case anymore. Wish my husband had been a herring fisherman$$$.

Wonderful photos, Anneli. You should be writing advertisements for restaurants! ha ha ha. Loved the photos of the herring roe. I didn’t realize just how many eggs are deposited on the shoreline. It is no wonder the seagulls are gathering for a feast on the beaches. This was a fun and interesting little story to read, and I even learned something today! 🙂 Thanks for sharing your walk on the beach.